Ford’s plan to install TCHC czar fails in council. What now?

In probably the first major reversal of his term as mayor, council failed to support Rob Ford’s attempt to dismantle the Toronto Community Housing Corporation board this morning. In a motion filed yesterday, the mayor wanted council to approve a) dismissing the entire TCHC board, including those who hadn’t already resigned, and b) appointing a single managing director who would act with all the powers of the board until council reconstituted the full TCHC board. Here’s the thing: because the motion was submitted late in the day Monday, it needed two thirds of councillors to support it before it could be discussed at council. This morning at 10:30, it failed to get enough votes, with only 26–16 in support.

What happens next in this saga? Apparently, the motion bounces to the Ford cabinet (a.k.a. the executive committee), which will hold an emergency meeting so that it can come back to council tomorrow—and only need a simple majority to pass.

All of this drama is part of the mayor’s apparent plan to put Case Ootes in charge of the TCHC. Ootes was a councillor in the last council and ran the Ford transition team before Ford took the chain of office, so he could fairly be called a Ford loyalist. What Ford’s plan is once he’s got his TCHC czar in charge of things is anybody’s guess—privatization? Simply firing Keiko Nakamura?—but this isn’t over yet.